The Shrine

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I have no links to anything but all this information should be popping up on every Website by tonight or tommorow.

From Nintendo, Mario Golf and Mario Tennis, we already have an idea of what they're going to be like, fun games, definetly worth a purchase.

From Capcom, a Capcom vs. SNK title, we all know what that's about. Also one called Glass Rose which I have not a clue about.

From Squaresoft, well, it seams hell has frozen over, So far the only games that have been announced are a Final Fantasy Title for Gamecube and a Final Fantasy title for Gameboy Advance which will make use of the GBA/GC link-cable. Looks like Yamauchi's grudge is finally over.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>Handheld FF4-6 and CT would be neat.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I agree with you though, Handheld games should be a big thing from Square, it's the most profitable system for a developer on the market currently.

To tell you the truth, I was never a huge fan of Final Fantasy 2 or 5j, 3 on the otherhand was amazing, it was the first must have RPG on SNES IMO, and only a year and a half before the N64, the others were Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Lufia 2, and Mario RPG, all out in 95/96, that's excluding titles that are sometimes considered RPG's like Terranigma, and Illusion of Gaia, I don't consider them such.

I guess the big thing I'd be looking forward to is Final Fantasy Legend 4, and hoping they'd go back to the style of FFL and FFL2 (still one of my favorite RPG's ever made), I didn't like the third one.

Maybe a Final Fantasy Tactics for GBA, afterall, the Sidequest from OPgre Battle: Person of Lordly Calibur (N64) called Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis (GBA) is looking pretty sweet, hopfully the music is as good as the N64 title, it had some nice tunes (Check out the song "Deliverance" if you haven't heard anything from the title).

<b>Spoiler Message:<b>
<span style="background: black; color: black;">300 bucks says he'll break down and get a Gamecube before PD0</span></div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>They've already released FF4 for Wonderswan, not sure if they're gonna do the same for the GBA. I hope so, but I doubt it. FF6 and CT on the other hand.....</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>In Japan, the FFL games were the Romancing Saga games, so I doubt there would be a sequel. They might release the SNES ones on the GBA, but that's about it I would imagine. And we already got the 2 PSX ones</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>There's a difference though between the Userbase of Wonderswan and GBA, one of them is 300,000, the other is about 35,000,000</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>Uh... you might wanna rethink that post.</div>

<div style='font: bold 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I would kill Ish for FF3 on GBA. Well, I'd kill Ish for a jelly donut but you get the idea. ;) Also, Zelda:ALttP would be cool on there.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>FF4 hasn't been released for the WSC just yet.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Apparently the entire thing is a major leak, and Sony didn't know the extent of the deal. Supposedly, the Nikkei reported the story a bit too early before it was meant to be released. One could gather this by reading the dodgy Square press release which confirmed GBA games and the name of the firm, but there was no mention of the Cube. Things still aren't quite clear on how the deal is going to be structured and a lot of stuff isn't known. This many have been something intended to be announced for E3, which is why it came out of nowhere. I could drag a link if you wanted it, but I doubt you will need it.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>"No details have been divulged about the game, other that it will make use of the connectivity between Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance." source: www.nintendo.com Official News</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm? ... id=2751</a>

That's PR talk, and Nintendo PR really doesn't know as much about the issue as Square does(Most of the PR talk is simply assumptions based on what the Q-Fund deal entails). As of this moment, it looks like the whole studio is simply a paper company, and all the development related to the GC/GBA is gonna be relegated to Square's second division(coincidentally headed up by Akitoshi Kawazu). As of this moment we don't know the exact ratios, and the fact that the official press release from Square mentions only GBA games indicates some sort of miscommunication between both companies.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>From that article ".The company also plans to develop games that utilize the GBA and GC link"</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Yes, that's the whole purpose of the Q-Fund, it's also gotta be done in 1 year.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Umm, 35,000,000 by August, maybe. They're more like 20,000,000 world wide right now</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Gabe's had this royal air, this cocksure swagger since that Square/Nintendo info got out - obviously, that's not something we could pass up as strip fodder. No-one is quite sure what all this means, yet - and while theories abound, in the short run I'm enjoying the mystery. The latest Double Agent (The GIA's essential letters column) was flush with prognostication, and I must say, I've done a fair bit of imagineering myself. An important thing to note about Square's dalliance with Nintendo is that the original project they bring to the system must exploit the connectivity between the Cube and the GBA. When I think of what such a union might mean in an RPG context, I nearly black out.

So, let's invite grievous, fall-related head injury: What kinds of shit could one pull with such a setup?


The most basic thing you could do would be to put a prequel out first on the GBA, and imbue the actions/experience/equipment and relationships with ramifications for the eventual GameCube version. Carrying a character through a series of games used to be commonplace on the PC - I need but invoke the legendary "Gold Box" or "Quest For Glory" series, and a generation of gamers will nod their head in silent agreement that we've taken a step back of late. The concept, though - fairly simplistic. Still satisfying.

Like the Dreamcast's VMU, the GBA could be used to depict information during play. It could behave as though it were some device in game, something the player owns perhaps, and in this role could serve any number of functions. Unlike a VMU, the GameBoy Advance could take a much more active role, being (as it is) a highly specialized controller. It could take center stage in a variety of mini-games, or might allow a friend to interact with the larger game in ways parallel to your own: getting information on enemies, controlling inventory management, plotting waypoints, etc. Those are only the most rudimentary possibilities, and already I'm starting to feel woozy.

Let's get all the way live. You take your GBA to a friend's house, and teach his characters special techniques your own party has discovered, swap unique party members, or enact trades of goods. On the GameBoy Advance, you can play the character's dream selves when saving at an Inn. The GBA can "translate" the languages spoken by the strange denizens you encounter. You don't even have to come up with these ideas. The ideas come up with themselves.
The relationship between Nintendo's flagship products is something that I think is unique, something that could potentially shake off the kitsch curse I might have expected from a pairing like this. It could give the term "Next-Generation" something to actually describe.

www.penny-arcade.com</div>